Comparing
The next generation HTTP client
Tiny and elegant HTTP client based on the Fetch API
| Metric | httpx | ky |
|---|---|---|
| Ecosystem | Python | npm |
| Difficulty | Intermediate | Beginner ✓ |
| Weekly downloads | 119.1M↑ | 5.6M |
| Latest version | v0.28.1 | v1.14.3 |
| Recipes | 2↑ | 1 |
httpx only
Shared
ky only
Use httpx when building FastAPI or asyncio applications that call external APIs. Also reach for it when you need HTTP/2 support, a requests-compatible API with async support, or a single library that works in both sync and async contexts.
Use Ky in browser-only or Deno applications where bundle size matters and you don't need Node.js compatibility. It's a direct replacement for axios in these contexts with a fraction of the footprint.
For simple synchronous scripts where you already use requests, there's little reason to switch — requests has a larger ecosystem of auth libraries and middleware. For high-volume async scraping at scale, aiohttp's lower-level control may be more efficient.
Ky doesn't support Node.js's older http module (though it works in Node 18+ with native fetch). For isomorphic code (same HTTP client in browser and Node), use axios or got. For React apps that need caching and state, React Query provides the better abstraction.
httpx
ky